KB in Honduras: Volunteer Visit, Day 2

We got up at 5:30 the next morning to catch the bus to El Nispero because Stacie was supposed to give a charla on dental hygiene at 7:30am. The hour ride was not in a bus, it was in a tiny cramped van that at one point was carrying 24 people even though it only has seats for 15. Quite impressive, and uncomfortable. We dropped our bags off at Stacie’s house and immediately left to walk to the school in the aldea over the mountain. An aldea is basically an extremely small town that is big enough for a school but too small to have anything else other than houses. Stacie had already been using the Colgate program for dental hygiene with grades 1 through 4 at this school, so we went along and helped her on this day. We gave her a new idea for a dinamica to do outside with the kids, in which they have to brush the bacteria off of a tooth. We all stand in a circle pretending to be the bristles of a toothbrush, and one person stands in the middle of the circle acting as the tooth and wearing a giant coat or backpack that is the bacteria on the tooth. We have to (gently) brush the bacteria off the tooth. The kids loved it, but did not understand the concept of gentle brushing.

After leaving the school, Stacie took us to her favorite comedor for lunch. Then we walked to the colegio (high school) to meet the director and a few teachers who Stacie works with on a regular basis. The director was very welcoming and nice, and likes to talk a lot. Actually, everyone in Honduras likes to talk a lot. It was a good chance to ask questions and meet people because we were going to help Stacie at the high school the next day. We then went home and changed into exercise clothes because we wanted to walk up the mountain and over to the river. First, we stopped by the field at the elementary school in El Nispero to watch baseball practice. Stacie helped the high school PE teacher organize a baseball team in the town, but unfortunately he did not want her help in actually coaching. We have been told, and have now seen, that Honduran men do not typically think women are capable of doing much, especially involving sports. That is too bad, because Stacie played softball for years and would be a great help to the team. I also approached one boy who was batting and asked if I could give him some advice. He said yes, so I tried to show him the proper way to bat, but it was evident that he would not listen to a girl. They also would not let me or Stacie play, so we decided to just go on our walk. The river was a few miles over the mountain, past the burning trash. I was glad we made it that far because it was beautiful! There were horses grazing along the side of the river and it was so calm. It was later in the day so I did not feel hot enough to swim, but sometimes Stacie and her other friends swim there. I accidentally ruined Stacie’s desire to ever swim there again by commenting that it looked like a place alligators would like to live. I have no idea if there are actually gators in those particular waters, but Stacie spent the rest of the time scanning the water for gators.

After we got back from our walk, we had to buy some groceries because we were going to make chicken tacos with some of Stacie’s friends. We were supposed to eat at 7pm but did not get to the house until 8:45 because so many people wanted to stop and talk with Stacie on the way. It was really fun seeing how integrated she was in her community! And the chicken tacos were delicious.